As election results are reported, here’s what we know on Wednesday morning about how voters around the U.S. responded to state and local initiatives with direct implications for waste and recycling policy:

• Denver: Over two-thirds of voters (about 67%) said ‘yes’ to Initiated Ordinance 306, which would require apartment complexes, a range of businesses and other food waste generators to begin offering recycling and composting service, according to the city’s election results. As written, the ordinance would affect certain locations (based on square footage) beginning in June. Read more: Denverite.
• San Diego: In a neck-and-neck contest that has not been finalized, just over half of counted votes (50.5% to 49.5%) opposed Measure B, which intended to allow the city to impose a trash pickup fee for single-family homes that had been under a longstanding no-fee system. Read more: The San Diego Union-Tribune.
• San Francisco: Voters opted to abolish the Department of Sanitation and Streets — created following a 2020 ballot measure — and transfer street-cleaning duties back to the Department of Public Works, with nearly three-quarters (about 73.5% of more than 146,600 voters) voting yes on Proposition B. Read more: CBS Bay Area.
• New York: Proposal 1, or the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022, gained support from 69% of state voters. The measure authorizes the state to borrow $4.2 billion to help fund projects related to climate change mitigation, resilient infrastructure, and other conservation and sustainability efforts. Former New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia supported the measure.
• Chittenden Solid Waste District, Vermont: More than 80% of voters supported building a new recycling facility with $22 million, local news station WCAX reported. Read more: VTDigger.
• San Benito County, California: Voters denied Measure Q, which would have made it harder to develop on farmland and ranchland. About 56% said no and nearly 44% said yes. Waste Connections reportedly contributed $30,000 to the No on Q campaign as it seeks to expand a key landfill there. Read more: The Mercury News.
• Hamburg Township, Michigan: In a tight decision, a proposal to consolidate trash service under a single hauler failed: 6,681 voted no, while 6,036 voted yes, Livingston Daily reported.
• Jackson Township, Wisconsin: The small town’s residents voted down a referendum to mandate town-wide garbage and recycling collection service, thus maintaining the model of residents’ private contracts or use of a transfer station, Washington County Daily News reported.

Please let us know if there are other election results in your area with direct implications for waste and recycling.